Marriott Updates T&C with New Language for Gifted Award Stays

Marriott’s Bonvoy program is moving to dynamic pricing today. In the meantime, Marriott has made some updates to its Terms and Conditions.

One of the changes is that “Free Night Award” are now called “Award Redemption Stays”. And the other change has to do with “Gifted Award Redemption Stays”.

These are stays that you can book for another person, when you will not be present for the stay yourself. The terms indicate that Free Night Awards can’t be used to gift award stays. Neither the member nor the recipient will earn any Points/Miles, Elite Night Credit, Qualifying Nights, or Qualifying Stays with Gifted Award Redemption Stay. In addition, the recipient will not receive any Elite benefits associated with the member’s Account. You can gift a maximum of five (5) Gifted Award Redemption Stays in a calendar year. You should still be able to add the recipient to a stay as a guest to get around some of these restrictions, at least for domestic stays.

Here’s the text in the terms:

Gifted Award Redemption Stays (Third Party Transfers). Award Redemption Stays are valid only for use by the Member from whose Account the Award Redemption Stay was processed and are not transferable, except as set forth below:

A Member may request an Award Redemption Stay to be issued to another person and where the Member will not be present for the stay (each such stay, a “Gifted Award Redemption Stay” and, collectively, “Gifted Award Redemption Stays”), only when booking the Award Redemption Stay reservation through Member Support. All Award Redemption Stay Types listed under Section 3.3 of the Programme Rules are eligible to be gifted to another person, except for Free Night Awards.

A Member may book a maximum of five (5) Gifted Award Redemption Stays in a calendar year on a single Membership Account.

When booking a Gifted Award Redemption Stay reservation, a Member must provide to Member Support their Membership Number and name, as well as the name of the person who will be staying at the Participating Property (the recipient). Both names and the Member’s Membership Number must be provided to Member Support at time of booking the Gifted Award Redemption Stay and cannot be modified once booked. A Member cannot make an Award Redemption Stay reservation first and then contact Member Support or the All-Inclusive Resort directly to gift or otherwise transfer the Award Redemption Stay to another person. If a Member needs to make a change to an Award Redemption Stay reservation, the reservation will need to be cancelled and a new reservation booked (if available) through Member Support, and the Member is responsible for the changes to the Points or cash, as applicable, required to book a new reservation.

With a Gifted Award Redemption Stay neither the Member nor the recipient will earn any Points/Miles, Elite Night Credit, Qualifying Nights, or Qualifying Stays in connection with such Gifted Award Redemption Stay. In addition, the recipient on the Gifted Award Redemption Stay will not receive the transfer of any Elite benefits associated with the Member’s Account.

At check-in, the recipient of the Gifted Award Redemption Stay must show valid identification and provide a credit card or cash deposit to the All-Inclusive Resort for incidental charges.

You can find these details here.

HT: Loyalty Lobby